Politics, parenting and other prattlings.

January 31, 2006

The Cotillion -- a gathering of women

Girl on the Right treats us to a roundup of eclectic links. As RightGirl puts it, we are the women addressing some of the major and minor messes in the world. Everything from a killer chocolate cookie recipe to an essay on the price of security, from a "dessert quiz" to book recommendations, the women of the Cotillion prove there's more to being a woman then obsessing about talking vaginas.

Samuel Alito confirmed

Just as the Hamas election brought clarity over the motivations and politics of "Palestinians", so does the vote on the confirmation to SCOTUS of Samuel Alito, a man who qualifications for the office were unimpeachable, lay bare the motivations and politics of the hysterics who opposed him.

From the unconscionable tirade of Uncle Teddy to the fecklessness of Babs Boxer, they clearly demonstrate that it is not Alito who is "out of the mainstream" but themselves. Not once in the hearings could they actually charge him with anything "extremist." Not once could they demonstrate that Alito had ever put ideology before Rule of Law and the Constitution. All they could do was rely on slanderous rhetoric, misstating and engaging in wholesale deception about a handful of Alito's decisions over the course of 15 years.

Even the attempt of making a boogeyman out of college alumni group that Alito had a casual association with went no where.

For some, they see a "dark day" -- not because Alito is a sinister figure who hates children and kicks puppies -- they see their dreams of using SCOTUS as a kind of "Super Legislature" to imperialisticly impose their own agenda on their fellow citizens (for their own good, of course!) will be much harder. They do not wish to actually have to go to their fellow citizens and persuade them to their views.

Nice to see the true out-of-the-mainstream actually having to understand what the US Constitution and American values are really about.

Terrorist front-group CAIR

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, says President Bush should avoid using "loaded and imprecise terminology" when he refers to Islam in his State of the Union address.

In a letter to President Bush, CAIR Board Chairman Parvez Ahmed suggested that the president be careful to "avoid the use of hot-button terms such as 'Islamo-fascism,' 'militant jihadism,' 'Islamic radicalism,' or 'totalitarian Islamic empire'" in his Tuesday night speech.

Ahmed reminded the president that, as Bush repeatedly has said, the war on terror is not a war on Islam. But Ahmed said the use of "loaded" terminology promotes that negative perception.

January 30, 2006

Uncle Teddy - Unhinged and updated with video link

Abraham Lincoln pointed the way and we passed the 13th, 14th, 15th amendment and had a civil war. But we didn't resolve this issue. It was only 'til we had the courage of those members of what branch of government? Not the US Congress. Not the US Senate. Not the executive. The Judiciary! The 5th Circuit! (Screaming again.)

We're talking now about the Supreme Court. But they are the ones who changed this country inevitably with what we call the march to progress. The march towards knocking down the walls of discrimination that permitted us to pass the 1964 Civil Rights Act and public accomodations so people who's skin was not white who could go into restaurants and hotels. Public accomodations. The '65 act for voting. Voting rights. The '68 act. The public accomodations. The 1973 act that said that women are going to treated equally. The Americans with Disabilities Act that said that the disabled are going to be part of the American family.

All of that is part of the march for progress.

And my friends, the one organization, the one institution that protects it is THE SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! (Screaming at the top of his lungs.)

Uh. No. It was The People who brought about Civil rights, sometimes inspite of SCOTUS ... or did Kennedy get tossed out of Harvard BEFORE they discussed Plessy v. Ferguson?

More clarity from Hamas - with UPDATE

Even though CNN is not reporting everything Mahmoud al-Zahar said, even they couldn't help letting out these enlightening bits.

Speaking from Gaza City, Zahar said if Israel "is ready to give us the national demand to withdraw from the occupied area [in] '67; to release our detainees; to stop their aggression; to make geographic link between Gaza Strip and West Bank, at that time, with assurance from other sides, we are going to accept to establish our independent state at that time, and give us one or two, 10, 15 years time in order to see what is the real intention of Israel after that."

"We can accept to establish our independent state on the area occupied [in] '67," he said. Israel took control of the West Bank and Gaza in the Six-Day War of 1967.

Zahar did not say how long an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza would be acceptable. Key conditions could allow Palestinians to give a "long-term hudna or long-term truce," and "after that, let time heal," he said.

But asked about Hamas' call for Israel's destruction, Zahar would not say whether that remains the goal. "We are not speaking about the future, we are speaking now," he said.

Oh, and for the anti-Israel/anti-American Left, chew on this:

News reports have said Hamas plans to establish separate schools for boys and girls in the Palestinian territories and implement stricter Islamic law. Asked whether he plans a theocracy instead of a secular government, Zahar responded, "Do you think the secular system is ... serving any nation?"

A secular system "allows homosexuality, allows corruption, allows the spread of the loss of natural immunity like AIDS," he said.

If one wants to continue to support "Palestinians" please be honest enough -- with yourself if nobody else -- that one is supporting people committed to the destruction of Israel and the death of all Jews.

UPDATE Over the jump choice bits from the transcript of Blitzer's interview with Zahar.

BLITZER: Mahmoud al-Zahar, thanks very much for joining us. I want to get right to a key question right now, recognizing Israel's right to exist.

The U.S., the Europeans, the Israelis say there won't be any dealings with Hamas until you do so. Are you prepared to accept a two-state solution, Palestine living alongside Israel?

MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR, CO-FOUNDER, HAMAS: First of all, I would like to address that. PLO, in 1988, addressed that they are able -- they are accepting existence of two states.

Since that time, Israelis expanded the borders, occupied '67, confiscated our right in Jerusalem, put a separating wall between the people and their own homeland. And since that time nobody is able to live as a human being.

They accepted that and they signed an agreement already. But, tell me, what is the border of Israel right now? What is the official border to accept this state? Now, the Israelis are putting on their flag two blue lines. That means the river Nile and the Euphrates (ph).
--------My emphasis. That unchallenged by Blitzer characterization of the Israeli flag is right there with Islamists acceptance of "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" as fact.
---------
BLITZER: As you know, since 1993 and the Oslo accords, the United States government has provided the Palestinians with more than $1.5 billion in humanitarian and economic assistance.

But President Bush now says that will stop unless Hamas, as part of this new Palestinian government, A, renounces terrorism, and B, accepts Israel's right to exist.

How worried are you that this economic assistance, not only from the U.S. but from the Europeans and elsewhere around the world will dry up, will end, unless you accept those two conditions?

AL-ZAHAR: I think the (inaudible) condition on the expense of the national interest was rejected by the Palestinian people when they voted for Hamas in the last election.

I think that any nation that respects their dignity and respects the will of their own people will not accept conditional reflex (ph) on the expense of Jerusalem, on the expense of the national interest, the right of return and establishment of an independent state.

The second point is that Action Aid (ph) in its report said that 90 percent of this money went into the pockets of the people who are deeply corrupted, who cooperated with Israel, who are accepting this money not for the interests of the people, but for their own interests.

Believe me, if we are going to run, and we are, inshallah, we are going to do this program, to reconstruct our industry, reconstruct our agriculture and reform the administrative process, we'll be able to open a new channel through our other Arabic and Islamic and international community, to help the Palestinian people with those (ph) condition. We are looking for this money, but this money should not be conditioned.

I think it is worth it for the Israelis, for the Americans to ask the Israelis to stop their killing, to stop their detention, to allow the Palestinian people who are living in refugee camps to come back, to live there in their homelands, the lands of their father and grandfather who are living here since many thousand years**. Unless that happens, I think no of the Palestinian people will accept the argument of Israel.
-------It is clear that Hamas does not, will not accept the existence of Israel. They either want to destroy it from within or from without. The bogus "right of return" just underlines everything already said.

**Also... more myth like the flag bit. JEWS have been living there since approx 1200 BC, so unless Zahar thinks himself either a Jew or a Canaanite, he really is yet another Judenhass liar.

Not one dime of US taxpayer money to "Palestinians." And I think public pressure on private groups supporting these Islamist thugs should now take front and center.

Debra Burlingame

A mere four-and-a-half years after victims were forced to choose between being burned alive and jumping from 90 stories, it is frankly shocking that there is anyone in Washington who would politicize the Patriot Act. It is an insult to those who died to tell the American people that the organization posing the greatest threat to their liberty is not al Qaeda but the FBI. Hearing any member of Congress actually crow about "killing" or "playing chicken" with this critical legislation is as disturbing today as it would have been when Ground Zero was still smoldering. Today we know in far greater detail what not having it cost us.

Critics contend that the Patriot Act was rushed into law in a moment of panic. The truth is, the policies and guidelines it corrected had a long, troubled history and everybody who had to deal with them knew it. The "wall" was a tortuous set of rules promulgated by Justice Department lawyers in 1995 and imagined into law by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) court. Conceived as an added protection for civil liberties provisions already built into the statute, it was the wall and its real-world ramifications that hardened the failure-to-share culture between agencies, allowing early information about 9/11 hijackers Khalid al-Mihdhar and Nawaf al-Hazmi to fall through the cracks. More perversely, even after the significance of these terrorists and their presence in the country was known by the FBI's intelligence division, the wall prevented it from talking to its own criminal division in order to hunt them down.

Furthermore, it was the impenetrable FISA guidelines and fear of provoking the FISA court's wrath if they were transgressed that discouraged risk-averse FBI supervisors from applying for a FISA search warrant in the Zacarias Moussaoui case. The search, finally conducted on the afternoon of 9/11, produced names and phone numbers of people in the thick of the 9/11 plot, so many fertile clues that investigators believe that at least one airplane, if not all four, could have been saved.

In 2002, FISA's appellate level Court of Review examined the entire statutory scheme for issuing warrants in national security investigations and declared the "wall" a nonsensical piece of legal overkill, based neither on express statutory language nor reasonable interpretation of the FISA statute. The lower court's attempt to micromanage the execution of national security warrants was deemed an assertion of authority which neither Congress or the Constitution granted it. In other words, those lawyers and judges who created, implemented and so assiduously enforced the FISA guidelines were wrong and the American people paid dearly for it.

Of course, one of the first responses to this article comes from someone characterizing Burlingame as "hysterical" and that she should just shut-up and go away.

Just as Richard Dreyfus' character in Jaws says to the mayor who wants to keep the beaches open inspite of two confirmed attacks, "You aren't going to believe [in the threat] until it swims up on the beach and bites you on the ass."

January 29, 2006

Battlestar Galactica - Black Market

With the Cylon fleet dealt such a blow in Resurrection Ship the writers have taken to some character studies.

And in Black Market we find Lee "Apollo" Adama now off the "Mr. Goody Two-Shoes" list.

This is a man with serious issues. He's trying to find some way to deal with is own personal shortcomings with his relationship with Goodtime Girl Shevon and her daughter Paya while he pushes away a possible real realtionship with Anastasia.

The depiction of the rise of the black market amongst the fleet and how both it was tacitly accepted and needed is a remarkable bit of writing, especially the balancing act in having Lee buck Roslin's authority in telling her how he is going to handle it. Actor Bill Duke's short part in protraying the kingpin Phelan was intense, and the closing scene where he believes he has Lee's measure, telling him "you're not going to shoot me", then Lee coolly does shoot him again demonstrates this show is not afraid to go where the story logic leads rather than play it safe.

Small quibble. I like Bill Duke and wish he could have stuck around for more episodes.

While Lee and Cmdr Adama seem to be finding a moment of detente, Roslin and Baltar's atagonism comes to the fore.

And where is that nuclear device that Baltar handed off to the "peaceniks?"

Boy, are my arms tired ...

Just rolled back into town after a jaunt to take Siobhan back to SFSU after winter break. Weather cooperated, did the boring drive up 5 and took the more scenic 101 (with an overnight in Cambria) down.

January 27, 2006

Self-delusion of Left and Liberals

The Left is shocked SHOCKED at the election of Hamas. As a followup of the previous post, here's the LA Times

Most Palestinians (sic), like most Israelis, want peace.

How the FUCK do they know that?

That's not fact. That's not even a supportable assertion. That is wishful thinking based on FEELINGS. They feel that bad things don't come from bad values (internal) but from bad [fill in external raison du jour].

Never again

Rather than just understanding that the election of Hamas, a terrorist group with a written charter dedicated to the eradication of Israel and the recapture of the Waqf wherever it exists (are you listening, Spain?), was a rare moment of clarity, the cacaphony from the usual "Palestinian" supporters towards people pointing out this fact remains one of attacking the realists. What? they say You want the extermination of the Palestinians(sic)?

No. Not extermination. Separation.

"Palestinians" as used to describe Arabs has only existed for less than 40 years. "Palestine" was the Roman name given the region after their defeat of the second nation of the state of Israel in 70 AD and the word "Palestinians" was used exclusively to describe JEWS.

That said, Israel should follow what Sharon has been pursuing.... SEPARATION. You don't transfer out the Arabs of the West Bank or Gaza, you don't 'exterminate' them, you separate from them. One cannot negotionate or have diplomatic relations with people who overwhelmingly want you murdered. Arab "Palestinians" do not negotiate in good faith. They engage in the moslem Koranic deception of "hudna". No wonder Hitler and the Mufti of Jerusalem were good pals... Hitler did his own 'hudna' when he negotiated "peace" with Chamberlain while rearming and planning to invade and conquer. The Oslo accords turned out to be the same as Munich Agreement.

This goes for the United States, too. We should immediately cease all foreign aid to "Palestinians."

'A'CLU -- just what the hell

The ACLU sued the federal government Wednesday for blocking a Muslim scholar from entering the United States, arguing that the government should not use anti-terrorism laws as "instruments of censorship."

The lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in U.S. District Court sought to open the way for Tariq Ramadan, a Swiss intellectual and Muslim scholar, to accept invitations to speak to audiences in the United States.

Last I looked, a non-American citizen has no right to expect to be allowed into the US under any circumstance. Censorship? How does the First Amendment convey rights to people who are both non-US-citizens and are not even in the US itself?Meet Tariq Ramadan.

Of course, the 'A'CLU is being consistent in bending over backwards for Islamists to enter this country at will, not be identified, not be tracked and, heaven forfend, end up in a database! What's to fear from Islamists like Ramadan who believe things like Sharia are superior to democracy?

Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg could not be reached for comment.

In further demonstration of the 'A'CLU's seriousness and sober reflection of priorities, they've helped a poor defenseless 17 y/o high school male assert his Constitutional right to wear a skirt to school.

January 24, 2006

Pictures from Frisco 'Walk for Life'

Thanks to Zombie, here and here. There are just so many images, so much anger and outright hatred and weirdness it's hard to point to just one. Or even a handful.

Even as a reluctant pro-choicer, I gotta say I have a lot of respect for the majority of pro-lifers who participated. Their self-discipline and self-restraint in the face of frankly whacked-out pro-abortionists was amazing.

Good LORD, pro-choicers! You want to be represented by people who hold signs demanding the death of their political opponents?

January 23, 2006

Mommy Sheehan at minute 18.5

Via LGF we find Mommy Sheehan winging to Venezuela to take her Anti-American Whore Show on the next stop of a world tour.

And in a pathetic show of her "intellectual" abilities, a truly strange and hatefilled rant she penned can be found at Common Delusions, rambling about some weird shit she calls "Matriotism."

Get it? Matriotism in contrast to patriotism. Because of The Patriarchy of course. Just as women should be womyn.

I believe the notion of patriotism has been expediently and nefariously exploited, and used to lead our nation into scores of disastrous and needless wars.

And which one's were those, Mommy? The Revolutionary War? WWII? The Civil War?

The idea of patriotism has virtually wiped out entire generations of our precious young people and has allowed our nation's leaders to commit mass murder on an unprecedented scale.

You charge "mass murder". Where?

The vile sputum of "if you aren't with us, then you are against us"

Can you source that quote, Mommy?

is basically the epitome of patriotism gone wild.

You mean like your publicity stunts like posing on your dead son's grave?

After the tragedy of 9/11

I'm surprised you remember.

we were on our way to becoming a fledgling Matriotic society

Whaaaa....?

until our leaders jumped on the bandwagon of inappropriate and misguided vengeance to send our young people to die and kill in two countries that were no threat to the USA or to our way of life.

You cunt. Afghanistan was training ground of the Islamists that committed the act of war on 9/11. Not by any means the first act of war on the US. The Jihadists had declared war on the United States and Jews long before that. And for all your so-called feminist womyn posturing, you don't give a good goddamn about WOMEN under the Taliban or Islamism as long as it doesn't interfer in YOUR life. I'd say interfer with your hair appointments or manicures, but its obvious you have never seen the inside of a salon. Or a gym.

The neocons exploited patriotism to fulfill their goals of imperialism and plumder.(sic)

Tinfoil hat on a little too tight, Mommy? I know you've been flirting with the usual Judanhass conspiracy mongering, but you really believe it?

Fucking tool. I hope you never come back to the States. You have lost any claim to the title "mother" long ago. Take your insipid "Matriotism" and go see how impressed al Qaeda is with you. Maybe if you actually return alive we can find you a cell next to Johnny Walker Lindh.

Anti-abortion protestors are 'bigots'??

The 33 year fallout from the flawed Roe v Wade is evident in the bizarre parade of activists on both sides of the issue. But this has me scratching my head:

Thousands of abortion opponents shouldering signs with slogans such as "Peace Begins in the Womb" marched in protest of the 33-year-old Roe v. Wade decision, while abortion rights supporters along the march route waved clothes hangers and shouted "Bigots go home."

Bigots? Bigots??? How? Considering that elective abortion for birth control was first advocated from an eugenics premise aimed at poor, non-white women and, even today, it falls disproportionately on non-white women. Sounds more like a case of projection from the pro-abortion street theater gang.

January 22, 2006

Battlestar Galactica - Epiphanies

While this episode has its moments, it has been the weakest one of the season so far. Coming on the heels of the challenging two-part Resurrection Ship, I certainly figured on a more transistional episode, but I was disappointed in some of sudden plot turns, such as the obvious Deus ex machina of saving President Roslin with "miracle fetal blood." It really cut off a storyline that could have been explored... letting Roslin go into a coma and be removed from the storyline for several episodes and explore how Baltar would have handled the Presidency. Agreed that Roslin is too important a part (and McDonnell too excellent an actor) to terminate, but there hasn't been enough internal logic background for the sudden recovery.

I also was disappointed that the moral wavering of Baltar we saw, not only in Resurrection Ship, but even in this episode (when he told Gina, aka Pegasus' Six, that he would NOT help in the destruction of mankind) was dumped at the end when he had a hissy fit over the letter Roslin had left him. It just doesn't ring a clear note for me.

Outstanding moments:

Helo struggling to keep himself undercontrol when Adama tells him they are going to forceably abort his and Sharon's baby "I guess it makes it easier to call it a 'Cylon'."

Sharon's rage including smashing her head against the glass.

Roslin's coma flashbacks that keep us in perspective that all was not sweetness and light in the Colonies before the Cylon attack. Also shows she was always a bit of a tough political cookie.

Another thought, old movie fan that I am, the ground swell of a "let's negotiate with the Cylons" that includes a seemingly sincere Gina who believes peace is possible (we've had hints that the Cylons are not all that one-minded either), reminds me of C.B. De Mille's Ten Commandments where the venal Dathan (played by E.G. Robinson) is always around to tell the weary Israelites, morale lagging and being pursued by the Egyptians, that they should stop and negotiate with their pursuers. "Better to be a slave in Egypt then to die in the desert."

January 20, 2006

See this phone #?? 866-730-6468??

Let me tell you about that number. It showed up on my cell phone last night at 7:14 pm. Then the same number rang me at work at 9:02 am today. This morning, in the midst of a busy Friday, I decided to answer it.

It was the Los Angeles Times telemarketing department cold-calling me to try and get me to subscribe.

What.the.fuck. My CELL phone!

I guess the bad news about revenue loss has them grasping, but they should know better then having cell phone numbers in their auto-call dial bank.

And if the entire legislative history of the United States cannot come up with a single reference to electronic surveillance and intelligence during wartime, then (a) the silence makes it legal, not illegal, and (b) it just proves that Congress doesn't have a lot of expertose in warfare. How long have we had wireless communications now -- a century? Does Bamford argue that breaking the Japanese diplomatic and military codes during World War II somehow constitutes a felony, since according to Bamford the legislature never considered it as part of a military effort during wartime?

I certainly recall the old controversy about c-sections back in the 70's and 80's. The line went that doctors pushed women into the procedure because it was more profitable, convenient for the doctor and because of The Patriarchy. But it seems that the contemporary trend towards elective c-sections is at women's insistence. The Matriarchy?

January 19, 2006

Amoral Hollywood

As much as I love movies, sometimes I really want to march into the offices of the Hollywood deal makers and crack a few heads together. Who the hell is behind this?

MEHMET Ali Agca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II, has struck a £4.5 million deal to make a Hollywood film explaining how and why he carried out the 1981 attack, according to an interview with his friend and bodyguard published yesterday.

Agca, 48, has already been given an advance of £280,000 by the unidentified film company which has secured the exclusive rights to tell his story and finally reveal his motivation, according to a report in an Italian news magazine.

American banks and illegal aliens

11 million illegal aliens is just too big a demographic for amoral bankers to resist.

the fast-growing undocumented population is coming to be seen as an untapped engine of growth. In the past several years, big U.S. consumer companies -- banks, insurers, mortgage lenders, credit-card outfits, phone carriers, and others -- have decided that a market of 11 million or so potential customers is simply too big to ignore. [...]

So with a wary eye on the heated political debate, business is targeting the Valenzuelas and millions of others who have entered the country illegally. Many companies do so more or less openly. Wells Fargo has half a million matrícula accounts, a majority of them, they acknowledge, opened by unauthorized aliens who lack regular residency or citizenship papers. At the Valenzuelas' branch, fully 80% of accounts are opened by matrícula holders. Blue Cross of California, whose parent, WellPoint Inc. (WLP ), is the nation's largest health insurer, sells health insurance to matrícula holders from company-staffed desks set up inside Mexican and Guatemalan consular offices in the U.S. Sprint Corp. (FON ) accepts such an I.D. for cell-phone contracts.

Other companies, such as Kraft Foods Inc. (KFT ), won't discuss the status of their customers but explicitly target Hispanic newcomers -- more than half of whom are estimated to enter the U.S. illegally, according to a new study by Pew. The consumer-products giant provides workbooks at local English-as-a-second-language classes that include instructions for using coupons for products such as Kraft's Capri Sun drinks in U.S. grocery stores. It also hosts bilingual sweepstake events in Hispanic neighborhoods. "We need to fish where the fish are," says Robert Simpson, Kraft's director of multicultural marketing. He calls part of the Hispanic audience he's trying to reach the "unacculturated," meaning people unfamiliar with American culture and customs.

The corporate Establishment's new hunger for the undocumenteds' business could have far-reaching implications for America's stance on immigration policy, which remains unresolved. Corporations are helping, essentially, to bring a huge chunk of the underground economy into the mainstream. By finding ways to treat illegals like any other consumers, companies are in effect legalizing -- and legitimizing -- millions of people who technically have no right to be in the U.S. It's even happening in mirror image, with some Mexican companies setting up programs to follow customers who move to the U.S.

I'm speechless. How is this any different than courting the business of criminal fugatives? Do banks make loans to people serving time in prison?

What is it about the word illegal that doesn't register with these people?

January 18, 2006

Assisted Suicide - SCOTUS decision

I have not had the time to read them yet. I would ask, though, that one thing be kept in mind. This has nothing to do with the Terri Schaivo* case. Let's not confuse them. The Oregon case is about suicide not homicide.

Student Internet Sleuths

When Caspian James Chrichton Stuart IV arrived at a Minnesota high school he looked like a typical senior, his story far from typical. He had a British accent, handed out business cards that said he was a member of Britain‘s royal family and told the other students he hung out with a number of American celebrities.

But Joshua Adam Gardner, 22, a.k.a. the Fifth Duke of Cleveland, as he called himself, wasn‘t well connected enough to close off the Internet. Some suspicious student reporters found he was not duke. He wasn‘t even British, but he was a convicted sex offender.

More on the difference between the Left

... the Left hates inequality even more than it hates evil. Or perhaps more accurately, for the Left, inequality is the ultimate evil. [...]

If ever there were a smoking gun as to what animates most leftists, the many expressions of the need for judges to favor "the little guy" in their courtroom constitute that smoking gun. The prime Democratic objection to confirming Judge Samuel Alito to the Supreme Court was that he does not rule in favor of the average Joe in his courtroom. [...]

Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl: "The neutral approach, that of the judge just applying the law, is very often inadequate to ensure social progress . . . "

For those on the Left, law, and everything else, is subservient to equality.

And no more is this illustrated than by the jaw-dropping lawsuit from an ever-increasing insane "A"CLU, covered by the inestimable Jeff Goldstein. Think of it. A so-called "American" organization filing a lawsuit declaring that communication between the Mohammed Attas of Islamism and a fellow traveler in the United States is so private no one is allowed to even note its passing from a foreign land into the United States.

January 17, 2006

A mom's advice on breaking the sick cycle

Flu. 'Tis the season. I've gotten emails about it. Listened to friends cope with it, with their spouses, their children. At work we haven't been at full staff since a week or so before Christmas.

Not that it's all flu. There's nasty colds, some bronchitis, hints at pneumonia. Sometimes the office sounds like a lung-ward for all the hacking and sneezing.

Last November, Mieke was almost at wits' end when it seemed her darling little boys would get over a cold just to start another one. I am going to offer here the advice I gave her.

First of all is to take care of yourself (and any kidlets) with good food and sufficient sleep. After that is to break the cycle of reinfection, and that means paying attention to surfaces. Think about everything you touch and how often (and unconsciously) you then touch your face. SO

Wash and change bedding A LOT. Wash in hot or warm water with a bit of bleach and that includes washing PILLOWS (not just slips) blankets, comforters -- anything next to your face.

Wash and disinfect all the kids' toys. OFTEN.

Wash and disinfect all touchable surfaces -- door knobs, door jambs, light switches. I made a game with my girls when they were little called "Fingerprint Patrol". Saturdays I'd mixup a couple of plastic tubs of nice warm, soapy water and hand the little ones washcloths, dipped and wrung. Then they had to run all over the house washing off fingerprints (and consequently germs and viruses) off walls, doors, etc.

Little kids are ALWAYS touching stuff then touching their faces and mouths. Fastest way of spreading colds and flu and reinfecting with the same. Soap and water and frequent washing of hands and surfaces goes a great way to breaking a chain of sicknesses. SOAP AND WATER, doesn't have to be any of the "anti-bacterial" soaps. Infact, there has been some question of late of their effectiveness.

Of course, if you find yourself felled by the ickies, nothing like a warm bed and a hot toddy.

No. Just. No.

January 16, 2006

Monday reading

After dropping a few well-chosen hints on his own website, today Jeff Harrell debuts as a regular Monday columnist for Wizbang. Excellent first column and, oh my, a few commenters are already frothing in the thread.

Want to further understand why the Left of Center is increasingly desperate? Why the "woe-unto-us" attitude? Take a gander at James Carroll's column in "honor" of Dr. King's holiday. It is a perfect illustration of too many of the Baby Boomer generation refuse to live in any other era than the 60's and 70's. In the closing paragraphs

In honoring King today, America knows full well how far short the nation still falls of the vision he articulated. In the year that he died, a federal commission convened to examine the roots of urban riots declared that the United States was, in fact, two societies, separated by race. Nearly forty years later, that remains true, and it did not take Hurricane Katrina to show it. The effective segregation of schools is as stark as ever. Incarceration rates of African-American males are astronomical. Gunplay in cities overwhelmingly targets young people of color. An institutional triage writes off huge proportions of poor black youth. Among middle and upper classes, social interaction between the races is rare. Even as "race" has been recognized as an artificial social construct at the service of a dominant class, it remains as much a marker of identity as ever.

And who is it that makes "race" the be-all of political identification?? Look, too, at the wording of the LATimes readership poll on Alito running on its editorial page. The question is:

Should Supreme Court Justice nominee Samuel Alito's 1985 memo on abortion be a determining factor in the decision to confirm him to the Court?

The first option is

Yes, the fact that he believes Roe v. Wade is not protected under the constitution hinders his ability to judge reasonably.

Leave aside that Roe v Wade has been written about as really bad legal reasoning by people who self-identify as pro-choice, but here is the Left hubris in a nutshell. That mere questioning of the sacrosanct Roe v Wade is proof of a psychological condition that renders a person unable to reason.

The Left is scared. Scared that without indoctrinating and brainwashing the younger generation that they HAVE to consider race that they are going to lose votes. Scared that if the courts actually start deciding per rule of law rather than "social justice" ideology they will actually have to go to the people and use PERSUASION to get their ideas through the legislature.

I find it, as grave somber Senate Democrats like to say, "troubling." Indeed, I find it not just "troubling" but sad that a party once so good at "the politics of personal destruction" has got so bad at it. [...]

It's a tragedy to watch once-fearsome attack dogs spend a week chasing their tails because they're "concerned" about the "Concerned Alumni of Princeton" -- though, of course, these days one's heartened to find Sen. Kennedy still capable of chasing tail. [...]

Even smear tactics require a certain plausibility. When you damn someone as a big scary mega-troubling racist misogynist homophobe and he seems to any rational observer perfectly non-scary and non-troubling, eventually you make yourself ridiculous. The boy who cried "Wolf!" at least took the precaution of doing so when there was no alleged predator in view. If he'd stood there crying "Wolf!" while pointing at a hamster, he'd have been led away for counseling. That's the stage the Senate Democrats are at.

Amormino said blasting caps, usually attached to a bigger explosive device, are used to cause explosions in mines and things like that. He called them concussion-type explosive devices, as opposed to the fragmentation type. [...]

The devices were in the water no more than one to three days, judging from a lack of corrosion, he said.

Authorities had asked nearby residents to refrain from using cell phones for fear that an electronic signal could trigger the detonators, but they were not considered dangerous enough to blow up yachts or homes.

Cell phones? These detonators can be set off by cell phones?? Hey, but nothing to see

A team of 15 law enforcement divers spent yesterday searching in 9 to 15 feet of murky water. The devices were believed to have been stolen and dumped. [...]

He [Amormino] ruled out terrorism.

Yep. That's the story and they're stickin' to it. Move along. Nothing to see.

BTW, am I the only one that remembers that after the first plane hit the Twin Towers that the Port Authority told people "Nothing to worry about, no need to evacuate, just go back to your offices"?

January 14, 2006

Battlestar Galactica - Resurrection Ship Part II

I'm still mulling over this multi-layered episode, the grand finale of Admiral Cain. An episode with the balletic beauty of a spectacularly directed battle in space between Cylons and Colonials, silently watched from afar by a stranded and dying Lee Adama. An episode where the moral conundrums of choosing between equally unpalatable actions is subtly played out across the sweating faces and in the haunted eyes of those imprisoned by their conscience.

The plot of BSG vaulted forward with this episode. The pursuing Cylons dealt a staggering blow with the loss of their Resurrection ship, the Colonial fleet now with two battlestars, and the President clearly in her last days. Adama and Roslin have made peace with one another and, in a bittersweet moment, sealed their respect for each other in her endtimes with a kiss. Not a romantic kiss mind you, but an affirmation of trust, and a salute, between old friends.

"If we don't have our trust, then we are no better than the Cylons" Lee tells Starbuck before the battle.

Helo's Sharon with a troubled Adama in his quarters before battle reminds him of his own words, way back before the first Cylon nuclear weapon exploded in the Colonial system, asking how such a flawed human society has survived and is it really worthy of surviving.

Philosopher Immanuel Kant wrote of Man as wild and raw and of need of reason and morality. BSG has Adama struggling with the raw and flawed humans around him (and with his own nature) and trying to find the worth to survive. While he saw the immediate need to assassinate Cain, he stayed his hand through a deference to his own categorical imperative in a salute to human worthiness. He did this knowing the odds that Cain was going to make an attempt on his life (certainly his own mortality was on his mind as he stood infront of the mirror and contemplated the stem to stern scar on his chest). Adama made peace with the possibility.

Cain ended up the victim of the Cylon she had tortured and the Pegasus' Six, helped by Baltar, has escaped off the ship. Now we are left with two sympathic Cylon characters (that we know of) and the BSG story will now turn to them and their continued effect on the humans they are with.

Themes of the nature of trust and courage and respect coupled with loss and disillusionment and despair.

January 13, 2006

An Appeal from Center-Right Bloggers

We are bloggers with boatloads of opinions, and none of us come close to agreeing with any other one of us all of the time. But we do agree on this: The new leadership in the House of Representatives needs to be thoroughly and transparently free of the taint of the Jack Abramoff scandals, and beyond that, of undue influence of K Street.

We are not naive about lobbying, and we know it can and has in fact advanced crucial issues and has often served to inform rather than simply influence Members.

But we are certain that the public is disgusted with excess and with privilege. We hope the Hastert-Dreier effort leads to sweeping reforms including the end of subsidized travel and other obvious influence operations. Just as importantly, we call for major changes to increase openness, transparency and accountability in Congressional operations and in the appropriations process.

As for the Republican leadership elections, we hope to see more candidates who will support these goals, and we therefore welcome the entry of Congressman John Shadegg to the race for Majority Leader. We hope every Congressman who is committed to ethical and transparent conduct supports a reform agenda and a reform candidate. And we hope all would-be members of the leadership make themselves available to new media to answer questions now and on a regular basis in the future.

Of disposable cells phones and priorities

In one New Year's Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said.

In an earlier incident, at a Wal-mart store in Midland, Texas, on December 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-mart spokesperson confirmed the incident.

Look at those dates again. Is it coincidence that these large purchases were made shortly after the New York Times unconscionable article (12/15/05) crippling the effectiveness of the NSA intelligence gathering? Domestic terrorist cells shuttling their communications to much more difficult to trap and trace disposable cell phones?

Is is coincidence that neither the NYTimes nor Washington Post are covering this story?

Much of what we loosely call the Western world will not survive this century, and much of it will effectively disappear within our lifetimes, including many if not most Western European countries. There'll probably still be a geographical area on the map marked as Italy or the Netherlands--probably--just as in Istanbul there's still a building called St. Sophia's Cathedral. But it's not a cathedral; it's merely a designation for a piece of real estate. Likewise, Italy and the Netherlands will merely be designations for real estate. The challenge for those who reckon Western civilization is on balance better than the alternatives is to figure out a way to save at least some parts of the West.

One obstacle to doing that is that, in the typical election campaign in your advanced industrial democracy, the political platforms of at least one party in the United States and pretty much all parties in the rest of the West are largely about what one would call the secondary impulses of society--government health care, government day care (which Canada's thinking of introducing), government paternity leave (which Britain's just introduced). We've prioritized the secondary impulse over the primary ones: national defense, family, faith and, most basic of all, reproductive activity--"Go forth and multiply," because if you don't you won't be able to afford all those secondary-impulse issues, like cradle-to-grave welfare.

The "journalists" and editors at the NYTimes and WaPo prioritized "the gotcha scoop" over national security. Leftists slandering Sam Alito prioritize a clear fealty to laissez-faire abortion over having an eminently-qualified, non-ideological jurist.

Much of the Left is in the grip of an ideological "Puritanism." Or, a Joan Crawford No More Wire Coathangers style of approaching ideas. The wire coathangers are Bush, conservatives, US military and Israel. Nothing, nowhere, nohow done by wire coathangers is to be tolerated. Get the wire coathangers out outOUT!

And anyone who also feels the same way about wire coathangers as you do, well give 'em a pass. Even if they are upfront about not only cleaning your closet but taking it from you someday.

Yes, I think I've tortured that analogy quite enough. However, it goes a long way to explaining the mindset of people who look at the events of 9/11 and try to downplay it as a "fluke" blown all out of proportion and then refuse to acknowledge evidence that Islamist terrorist are quite serious about Islamizing the world.

The media doesn't look much beyond the next big story or the next quarter. Western nihilists don't look much beyond their next coffee-shop gathering to make snide comments about un-hip middleclass families. The survival of Western civilization rests with the rest of us great unwashed, un-hip, baby-making, duty-honoring, value-holding, family-oriented, unabashedly patriotic, justice-minded, charity-giving, shop-keeper mentality bourgeoisie. We'll just have to save our neofeudal brethren inspite of themselves.

January 12, 2006

All Condi needs is a good hard f**king

but she's too old to really enjoy it. At least, that's what the leader of the Liberal and Democratic Party of Russia (LDPR), Vladimir Zhirinovsky is saying This is NOT parody

Condoleezza Rice's anti-Russian stance based on sexual problems.

The US Secretary of State released a coarse anti-Russian statement. This is because she is a single woman who has no children. [...]

Condoleezza Rice released a coarse anti-Russian statement. This is because she is a single woman who has no children. She loses her reason because of her late single status. Nature takes it all.

"Such women are very rough. They are all workaholics, public workaholics. They can be happy only when they are talked and written about everywhere: "Oh, Condoleezza, what a remarkable woman, what a charming Afro-American lady! How well she can play the piano and speak Russian! What a courageous, tough and strong female she is!

"This is the only way to satisfy her needs of a female. She derives pleasure from it. If she has no man by her side at her age, he will never appear. Even if she had a whole selection of men to choose from she would stay single because her soul and heart have hardened. [...]

This is really scary. Ms. Rice's personal complexes affect the entire field of international politics. This is an irritating factor for everyone, especially for the East and the Islamic world. When they look at her, they go mad.

"Condoleezza Rice needs a company of soldiers. She needs to be taken to barracks where she would be satisfied. On the other hand, she can hardly be satisfied because of her age.

JAYsus, Mary and Joseph, and here I thought such misogynist thinking was basically moslem in nature!

Cue the Left Cult desperation

It is remarkably frustrating to blog the Alito hearings, feel the righteous indignation of people in the comments sections all over the blogosphere that the supreme court is in danger of making a major lurch to the extreme right with the potential appointment of a bigoted, sexist, entitled, slavering chickenhawk like Alito, and see it reflected nowhere in the traditional media.

Every time it feels like some momentum is being gained, CNN blows it all away with the sweep of a facile headline. Pick up a paper or turn on cable news and on cue they are parroting all the GOP's talking points -- Alito's a moderate, he'll keep an "open mind" on abortion, and oh the poor frumpy sobbing wife.

Why is Sam "bigoted"? cuz he is Not Left.

Why is Sam "sexist"? cuz he is Not Left.

Why is Sam "entitled"? (let's not mention his modest, middle class upbringing by two high school teachers) cuz he is Not Left (and therefore not constantly grovelling and apologizing for being melanin-challenged and having a penis).

Why is Sam a "slavering chickenhawk?" cuz .....

And isn't it fun, in a sick kind of way, to see a ahem FEMINIST dismiss Mrs. Alito as a "frumpy sobbing wife?"

Death Penality News

So far, no one has been able to offer proof that an innocent person has ever been executed. And here's the latest.

RICHMOND, Va. – New DNA tests confirmed the guilt of a man who went to his death in Virginia's electric chair in 1992 proclaiming his innocence, the governor said Thursday.

The case had been closely watched by both sides in the death penalty debate because no executed convict in the United States has ever been exonerated by scientific testing.

The tests, ordered by the governor last month, prove Roger Keith Coleman was guilty of the 1981 rape and murder of his sister-in-law, Gov. Mark R. Warner said.

Coleman was convicted and sentenced to death in 1982 for the murder of 19-year-old Wanda McCoy, his wife's sister, who was found raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded in her home in the coal mining town of Grundy.

The report from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto concluded there was almost no conceivable doubt that Coleman was the source of the sperm found in the victim.

"The probability that a randomly selected individual unrelated to Roger Coleman would coincidentally share the observed DNA profile is estimated to be 1 in 19 million," the report said.

A few words on women's tears

Let's leave aside, for the moment, the nature/nurture origins of what I'm about to say. Men and women generally act differently when emotionally overwhelmed. Each individual may have a different threshold, breaking down during a crisis or after it concludes, but that time will signal a demarcation of sex.

If someone you love is being treated shabbily, unfairly and unjustly, is being bullied and slandered in front of you and you can't do a thing about it, there will come a time when your frustration reaches such a threshold that you'll react.

Memo to Biden: with supporters like ...

The only thing standing between Joe Biden and the presidency is his mouth. That, though, is no small matter. [...]

The reviews for Biden's first crack at Samuel Alito, the humorless Supreme Court nominee, were murderous. The New York Times had Biden out on Page One -- normally a position to kill for -- only this time it was not a paean to his considerable merits, but an account of how it took him nearly three minutes of throat-clearing to ask his first question and then took the rest of his allocated 30 minutes just to get in four more. [...]

The seniority that makes Biden so knowledgeable on foreign policy -- a conversation with him is always instructive -- is also what cripples. He has been in the Senate since 1973 and suffers, as nearly all senators do sooner or later, from the conviction that he and his colleagues are the center of the world. After all, no one -- with the possible exception of family members -- ever tells a senator to shut up. They are surrounded by fawning staff and generally treated as minor deities. They lose perspective, which is why, now that you've asked, they talk and talk at these hearings. They are convinced the world is watching. Actually, it's only a half a dozen shut-ins on C-SPAN -- and, of course, the nearly catatonic press corps. Everyone else is playing computer solitaire.

And, of course, Biden was caught this morning whining that "The system's kind of broken" because Biden, the excreble Kennedy and the unctuous Schumer won't deviate from their pre-written scripts and give more than a few seconds to Alito. Not that they even listen to his answers, anyway.

Yes, the hearings are a joke and these bully-boys with all the sophistication of juvenile, pampered, indulged, yet value-bankrupt off-spring of the super-rich are to blame.

Ya can make 'em carry a condom ....

BOGOTA, Colombia - A western Colombian city councilman wants to require everyone in town 14 or older to carry a condom to prevent pregnancy and disease, outraging local priests

William Pena, a councilman in Tulua, said Wednesday he will present a formal proposal to force all men and women — even those just visiting — to always carry at least one condom. Those caught empty-pocketed could pay a fine of $180 or take a safe sex course, he said.

January 11, 2006

Moonbats with WAY...

An unprecedented series of indictments alleging war crimes and crimes against humanity, in five separate areas, on moral, political, and legal grounds, will be delivered by a citizens' tribunal to President Bush at the front gate of the White House this Tuesday, January 10th.

blah blah blah

What's really amusing is their first count of "war crimes"

Wars of Aggression, particular reference to Iraq and Afghanistan

Emphasis mine. What's the meme that the "Don't you dare question MY patriotism" Leftists trot out whenever criticism comes their way? That invading Afghan post-9/11 was justified? Not only does this [snicker] "indictment" belie that ostensible claim, but

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Huge majorities of Afghans reject Al-Qaeda and the Taliban, approve the US military role in their country and are grateful to international bodies like the United Nation.

The survey by the Program on International Policy Attitudes (PIPA) at the University of Maryland also found strong support for President Hamid Karzai.

Sometimes those opposed to America's efforts against Islamist terrorism do so from legitimate tactical/practical/principled reasons. Others, like those in all the groups and individuals tied to the "indictments", are just on the otherside.

January 10, 2006

The Cotillion and a salute to Grace

This week the Cotillion sisters bring you a plethora of reading, hosted by Zendo Deb. Zendo Deb frames the summary and links to a diverse offering of writings with the story of the amazing Grace Hopper, Rear Admiral and one of the founders of modern computing. From being the person who coined the word "bug" to the invention of the compiler, take a few moments to read about this amazing woman and her story that surrounds other amazing women.

Terrorism on the border

Vincente Fox's temper tantrum about the US audacity in finally taking baby steps to protect our sovereignty (wow, what a concept!) is mirrored in a more vicious manner by angry smugglers

Mexican alien smugglers plan to pay violent gang members and smuggle them into the United States to murder Border Patrol agents, according to a confidential Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the Daily Bulletin.

The Officer Safety Alert, dated Dec. 21, warns agents that the smugglers intend to bring members of the international Mara Salvatrucha street gang also known as MS-13 into the country for the deadly mission.

"Unidentified Mexican alien smugglers are angry about the increased security along the U.S./Mexico border and have agreed that the best way to deal with U.S. Border Patrol agents is to hire a group of contract killers," the alert states.

[...]

Intelligence officials last year reported that MS-13 gang members had been linked to terrorists seeking entry into the country.

Michael Friel, a representative with the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said he could not comment directly on the memo, but noted "this wouldn't be the first time agents' lives have been threatened.

[...]

Over the past year, Border Patrol agents have warned they are facing more danger than ever before along the divide between the two countries. Many believe stepped-up enforcement by the United States has led to a similar increase in violence by drug smugglers and border crossers.

Last week, agents in Texas reported two separate incidents in which someone fired on them from the Mexican side of the border. Officers in Arizona were issued pocket-sized cards last year with suggested maneuvers in case they encounter Mexican military troops while on patrol.

Not to worry, though. I'm sure the "A"CLU and its fellow travelers will be still on the border watching those purveyors of true criminality ... the Minutemen.

January 06, 2006

Battlestar Galactica - Resurrection Ship Part I

It's been a long wait since September 24 but tonight all time disappeared.

We left Pegasus and Galactica on the brink of a shooting war between them, and we opened with a game of nerve-testing chicken, as the vipers moved on and around each other under orders not to fire unless fired upon. Both stood down with Starbuck's return from her unauthorized recon mission in the Blackbird, a stealth ship that the command of the Pegasus had ridiculed.

That's the barebones of the plot. But where BSG has always shown has been in the small character scenes, in the unexpected twists and revealings, and in the myriad of moral questions asked.

*President Roslin doing the politic and getting Cain to focus on a mission to destroy the Cylon ship. Later, she's alone with Adama making him confront the reality of Cain's ambitions and megalomania. For all her softspokeness, Roslin has grown beyond a mere political figurehead into a worthy civilian Commander in Chief.

*The look of lust in Cain's eyes as she viewed the information about the Resurrection ship (thus did Ahab behold the white whale) combined with her vituperation of the Pegasus' captured Six, hints that there is yet another background story we haven't heard quite beyond and much more personal than just the horrendous Cylon attack.

*Baltar's confession, as he sits in sumptuous slendor in front of a breathtaking view, that he really doesn't miss it that much and is almost disturbed by his little forays into fantasy. He is less the two-dimensional, out-for-just-himself sleazebag as of late.

There's then the small bits of humor that makes one realize on what high-stress level the rest of the show is running on.

The ending was pitch perfect, the scenes intercut between Cain and Adama as they each recruited one trusted person to a plan to assassinate the other. Will it be a foregone conclusion? We know Starbuck is more loyal to Adama than Cain's second is to her. But we know, too, that Starbuck has never had to do what Adama is asking whereas the Pegasus officers have all lain with evil and gotten up less than whole.

Jeff Harrell has some very wise things to say about his support of the Alito nomination.

I know that he’s a fundamentally qualified jurist and a man of wisdom. And that’s enough for me, you know? Because I’m more interested in finding wise and capable judges than I am in populating the Supreme Court with justices who agree with me on every little detail of public policy.

"My Muslim nation, you will never enjoy free elections ... and governments answerable to their people ... unless you are liberated from the Crusader-Zionist occupation and corrupt governments, and that can only be achieved through jihad (holy war)."

Remember, the jihadists believe America, too, is Waqf because a supposed moslem was with Columbus.

First it was an anonymous "Biff" character from the LA Times' own publishing company insulting Patterico on his own site, now the desperation and unsubstatiated slams are from Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times itself. And he doesn't do much better than "Biff".

Last, but not least, is wishing a Happy Birthday! to my oldest daughter. For me, she was the best part of 1979.

January 05, 2006

Not all silly lawsuits are American UPDATED

An Italian court is tackling Jesus -- and whether the Roman Catholic Church may be breaking the law by teaching that he existed 2,000 years ago.

The case pits against each other two men in their 70s, who are from the same central Italian town and even went to the same seminary school in their teenage years.

The defendant, Enrico Righi, went on to become a priest writing for the parish newspaper. The plaintiff, Luigi Cascioli, became a vocal atheist who, after years of legal wrangling, is set to get his day in court later this month.

"I started this lawsuit because I wanted to deal the final blow against the Church, the bearer of obscurantism and regression," Cascioli told Reuters. [...]

"In my book, The Fable of Christ, I present proof Jesus did not exist as a historic figure. He must now refute this by showing proof of Christ's existence," Cascioli said.

Were these people's rights violated?

Jeff Goldstein has endless patience in going over and over the same points about the NSA surveillance program, with care to laying out the program as it is currently known quoting and linking at length to the commentary and answering on point the Left cultists who can only shriek about things that are not even in contention. Jeff's latest here. Of course, Jeff's detailed posts don't go unnoticed by the let's fling feces against the wall types at Atrios, Kos, and other cultist sites were feelings rule over all.

Simply, there are only a few things to consider. Does the Executive branch have a right to use technology to gather intelligence on foreign enemies, even when those enemies make connections with American citizens? If some of the surveillance involves American citizens, deliberately or incidentally, and those citizens never find out about it, have their rights been violated? Think of the latter as a variation on the theme if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it ....

In the 1980's my [then] husband worked at Northrop on the B-2 Stealth bomber ... at a time when the project was black world enough that the facility he worked at -- the old Ford truck assembly plant in Pico Rivera -- had no indication from the outside it WAS a Northrop facility. As his spouse, I was briefed, too, on proper behavior, the limits we could travel and told that our neighbors and family would be "checked out". Indeed, we were obligated to let them know when any of our neighbors changed and they would be subject to a background check. My husband's brother at the time was a First Mate in the Merchant Marines, on oil tankers, and he became subject to periodic surveillance as he traveled overseas into areas the Feds considered "hostile." We were told never to alert anyone to such surveillance and none of our neighbors or family were ever the wiser to these warrantless domestic intelligence reviews.

Were their rights violated? How? And did the Feds have no reason to check them out considering the highly classified work my husband was involved with?

Children as pets

A five-year-old and his ten-year-old brother were safe with their grandma Tuesday night, after police say their parents left them in their San Ramon home while they visited Vegas for New Year’s.

Libbey Holden had her two grandsons right where she wants them, safe and warm in her Manteca home.

The two boys found themselves home alone Friday morning, when their father and stepmother flew to Las Vegas to celebrate New Year's eve. Holden says she knew the couple had plans to leave town. They asked her to baby-sit, but Holden says because of her job, she had to say "no."

“She said they tried everything possible, I said you mean a paid nanny, she said she couldn't find one,” Holden recalls.

So Holden suggested all four go on the trip as a family.

“She said, ‘we are newlyweds, and we are working, we deserve a vacation,’” Holden recalls.

Saturday night, more than 24 hours after that vacation started, San Ramon police found the two boys inside their home, Holden had called officers to check on them.

Well, if the court has any brains, the "newlyweds" should now have loads of time without the burden of the boys.

TALLMANSVILLE, W.Va. - In a stunning and heartbreaking reversal, family members were told early Wednesday that 12 of 13 trapped coal miners were dead — three hours after they began celebrating news that they were alive.

The sole survivor was in critical condition but showing signs of brain functioning, a doctor said.

The devastating new information about the others shocked and angered family members, who had rejoiced with Gov. Joe Manchin hours earlier when a rumor began to spread that 12 miners were alive. Rescue crews found the first victim earlier Tuesday evening.

"I can only say there was no one who did anything intentionally other than risk their lives to save their loved ones," Manchin told ABC's "Good Morning America."

"No one can say anything about that would make anything any better," he said. "Just a horrible situation."

The survivor, identified by mining officials as 27-year-old Randal McCloy, was unconscious but moaning when he arrived at a hospital, the hospital said.

I'm terribly saddened by this news and my heart goes out to the families enduring the unenurable. My thoughts and prayers for Randal McCloy and his rapid recovery.

Schumer signals Dem strategy ...

WASHINGTON - The investigation into leaks about a domestic spying program should determine whether the motivation was damaging security or revealing a potentially illegal activity, a Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday.

"There are differences between felons and whistleblowers, and we ought to wait 'til the investigation occurs to decide what happened," said Sen. Charles Schumer.

Really, Chuck? So the new goal posts are not whether or not a law was broken and actual damage was done, but only if there is proof that the leakers did want to damage National security?

Where have you been then vis a vis Scooter Libby, who was not indicted for either leaking OR telling the truth about kerfluffle Plame's involvement in Wilson's lies? Isn't Libby nothing more than a mere whistleblower?

There is a process for Federal employees to become officially recognized as whistleblowers through the US Office of the Inspector General. Recognition by the OIG protects the employee from retaliatory employment actions, and triggers an OIG investigation of the charges made by the whistleblower.

It's not enough to simply declare oneself a whistleblower. And whistleblower disclosures are never sanctioned to outside agents, including and especially the Press.

Schumer seems to have an eye towards the machinations of the Gray Lady and Capt. Ed exposes the strained lengths the NYTimes is going to in order to claim "crime" without offering any substance.

Related:

Michelle Malkin highlights that even the NYTimes ombudsman Byron Calame is being studiously ignored by his bosses.Jeff Goldstein discusses the manipulative and dishonest way the "Mainstream" media has framed this story.

Happy New Year!

Yep, the grandsons were a bit shorn at Halloween, but I love this picture.

It was a fairly quiet evening. I chatted with some friends early on, then Eric and I shared a candlelit dinner for two and then ... well, there are some things I do keep private.

I turned on the last 10 minutes of Dick Clarke's [re]broadcast from New York and it almost tore my heart out to see him valiantly work at trying to recapture his broadcasts of years past. Growing up with him as a Saturday afternoon fixture, then as a constant New Year's eve host, we always joked he had his own Picture of Dorian Gray stashed somewhere. No more.

And the ... er ... spectacle of Mariah Carey? Ewww. 'nuf said.

So, here's to 2006! Revel in the joys, be courageous in the face of tragedy, embrace the love of friends, seek justice and the wisdom to define it.